Pushing CAFs

So lately the sales floor team has been coming to me irritated because when they are pushing CAFs (not the early morning Auto) many of the items are empty on the shelf with a grey dot. Sounds to me that either in stocks is faking (which they may be because they haven't finished a workload in months) or their batches are rolling into the noon CAF pulls. Can anybody think of any other reason why this could be happening. Oh and our CAFs have been huge lately...looking at 6hr pull times for every hour.

Thread Derailer

It's probably a combination of things. Instocks faking out their batches, BR burning theirs, and if it actually does end up getting pulled, the product is probably not getting pushed properly and ends up in the back with a backstock clip on it. All of that is what happens at my store. OMG 6 hour pulls? I can't even wrap my head around that.

It could be many things like you two have said. It could be that they are just dotting it and not scanning (which doesn't make sense to me but you never know), challenge from the truck that didn't get pushed and the clip just changed, research/outs pulls that didn't get pushed and the clip was just changed, challenge that got backstocked anyway and came back out in the cafs, not being pushed properly the first time and sent back out due to either coming out in another pull or the BRTM sending it out, etc., etc.

The next time you are in go audit the 'cafs' with item search, go to the in-stocks button and look at the last time it was pulled. Compare that with the last time it arrived at the store, the last time it was scanned in research, outs, ptm, etc. and you'll have your answer there. Also print up the caf report and compare it to what is on the tub to be pushed (quantity wise), look into the autofill report from early morning, etc. There are plenty of tools to see what the issue is, let us know.

Former Softlines TL

Why exactly would an instocks tm take the time to put a dot on something that they didn't scan? It just seems counter productive. More likely is that the flow team doesn't like to push accurately and that many items are going to backstock and not flagging as challenge. This happens every day in my store. Are you checking that the backroom is pulling the instock batches when they drop and not sprinkling them into the CAFs? Which by the way, if they are, that is okay because best practice is for the sales floor team members to push the priority pulls, but for instocks to help if they are able. Granted they shouldn't be sitting there all afternoon, but that's a whole 'nother issue.

Maybe instocks works differently in your store, but "which they may be because they haven't finished a workload in months" how exactly are you basing this? Having the ability to hit the instocks application and not seeing all the lists completely finished does not indicate that they aren't doing their job.. could be flow process is behind, could be transitions, could be that they are not staffed correctly.. Sorry to sound defensive but I've never seen an instocks team that half-assed their job. It's easy and (imho) rewarding.